The Nature of God's Law

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Rom 7:7-13)

Because of the country that we’re blessed to live in we have a certain perception of laws. Our laws are created by the legislature with representatives acting on behalf of the people whom they represent. These laws can be removed if they’re found to be no longer needed, they can be added to if they’re found to not cover enough of what needs to be legislated, and they can be modified if they’re found to be less than effective in obtaining their goal. These laws are interpreted by our courts. As cases come before a judge, the judge is to apply the law to the individual case set before him. Considering human laws in this light, we see that they’re very flexible…continuously changing, and being interpreted based on different applications of individual cases.

Though this is an accurate description of the nature of our country’s laws, it is not at all an accurate picture of the nature of God’s Law. Far from being flexible, God’s Law is quite inflexible. It does not bend to the trends of culture, it does not fall short of its intended purpose, in short it does not have the flaws that human laws have because the nature of the law mirrors the nature of the law-giver. As humans, we are prone to err; therefore our laws are prone to err. God is perfect, unable to err; therefore His laws are perfect as well.

It’s important to point out that there are different kinds of law in Scripture. If we look at the OT we find ceremonial laws, such as the sacrificing of animals; we find civil laws, such as the penalty for adultery being capital punishment; and we find moral laws, which are best summed up in the 10 commandments. The moral laws of God are the root of the matter. The ceremonial laws were there because people break the moral law and must be made right with God. The civil laws were there because people break the moral law and must be made right with society. So both the ceremonial and the civil laws of God are an application of His moral laws. In the Church Age we are no longer under the ceremonial or civil laws of the OT. The ceremonial laws pointed towards Christ, and since Christ has come they serve no more purpose. The civil laws were an application of the moral law specifically given to the theocratic state of Israel. Since that state no longer exists, the civil law is no longer binding…except to gain wisdom from it in applying the moral laws to our own situations.

Some don’t make a distinction within the law as I’ve done, and teach that with the advent of Christ the law in its whole, even the moral law, doesn’t apply to us anymore. This kind of teaching is clearly against Scripture as we read the Lord Himself saying:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Mat 5:17)

The moral law is not only for Christians, but for all people. It is something that God requires of everyone, regardless of whether they’re a believer or not. The Scripture makes this clear in saying that though the Gentiles do not have the law, they

…show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them (Rom 2:15)

This moral law is summarized by Christ in Mat 22…

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Mat 22:37-40)

To summarize the law in this way rather than repeating the 10 commandments serves the same purpose that the laws themselves serve – it convicts us of the sinful nature of man, who neither loves God nor his neighbor as he should. It drives home the teaching of Scripture that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

When we understand that our love for God is to be unrivaled we are convicted. If we are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that many times we love other things above God. Ask yourself why you sin. Isn’t the fact of the matter that we sin because we love it? What then is the answer to overcoming sin? The answer is to have a greater love for God. It’s love that compels us, either to sin or to God.

In a lesser manner we are also to love our neighbors as ourselves. Any that would in self-righteousness claim to love God as they should have evidence against themselves here. If we don’t love our neighbors, who we can see, then how can we love God who we can’t see?
The apostle John tells us that…

… if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? (1Jn 3:17)

The love of God is manifested in how we treat those around us, not in lip service. Here’s a question that I’d like you all to answer to yourself as a little test, “Would you come into church with an axe and hack away at the pulpit, the pews, and everything else that you see?” If we realize that our brothers and sisters are in Christ, and as such are the temple of the living God, why do we find it so easy to hack away at them? Why do we find it so easy to tear down and so hard to build up each other? In the end it’s because of our lack of love for God. We put up a good facade; after all we wouldn’t destroy this building. Praise God for that, but this building has no life. Why are we so careful in how we treat lifeless buildings, yet so careless in how we treat each other, tearing down that which has the life of Christ in it?

We have not loved God or our neighbors in the way that we are required to – fully and completely. Yet, thank God in Jesus Christ we have the required love! Thank God that our acceptance with God is not in our ability to love as we should, but rather in the love of Christ which is perfect and full. His love for God and for His neighbor was so great that it lead Him to the cross so that He would die for those whom the Father had given Him. Not only that, but He would rise again in victory over death. It’s this love of Christ - a love that sacrifices all for God and for others – a love that we’re given when we trust in Christ for our salvation. It’s also a love that we must continue to strive towards as we run the race set before us since none of us love perfectly this side of glory. There are many boastful folks who boldly claim they would die for Christ. And this is an easy boast to make when we’re not confronted with death, but how shallow it rings when compared to what we are confronted with. We’re confronted with busy schedules - do we sacrifice time for God? We’re confronted with being accepted by our peers – do we sacrifice acceptance with men for acceptance with God? We’re confronted with a 24-7 entertainment culture – would we rather spend 2 hours watching a movie than 2 hours in prayer? These are the real questions to ask, these are what will give us insight into the true extent of our love for God.

By this summary of the moral law of God we see the very nature of it. We understand what God demands of us, and we understand how short we fall in keeping with the nature of His law.